Pancho

"Pancho" 11"x14", oil on linen. This one seemed almost to paint itself. Sometimes it goes like that. I windowshaded my way across the underpainting and had very little retouching to do at the end. I had the words of my former instructor, Robert Armetta, ringing in my ear, when he used to tell me, as I painted a detailed area to "paint it's portrait", so that's what I did with the wooden crate. If you're wondering why this photo looks so much better than the rest it's because I've finally found an affordable professional photographer to hire. His name is Devin Cecil-Wishing, he's a third year student at Grand Central Academy, he does all of their artwork photography, and best of all if you're in the New york metro area, he will travel to your studio. Drop me a line if you're interested, and i'll give you his contact info.

Small Faces

Two quick three hour sketches and a study after Charles Bargue. All on 8"x10" canvas panels. I'm starting to enjoy the quick portrait sketches a little more although I still find the whole process somewhat torturous overall. It completely goes against the grain of my perfectionist methods which I'm guessing in the end will prove to be a good thing.

Chasing The Model

"Portrait Study" 9"x12" oil on linen on board, "Caesar's Last Bath" oil on linen on board 16"x20", "Pancho" 16"x20" oil on linen. Not doing a great job with the photographing but I thought I'd blog these anyway. I will rephoto after varnishing and post better shots. The portrait study was made at my saturday mornings group session. The model came in having had only one hour's sleep (not her fault). The session was for three hours. She started with her head inclined and her eyes open, but her eyes kept closing and her head was flopping around like one of those bobble heads. I kept hearing my former instructors voice like Obi Wan telling me to use my experience to paint the portrait rather than relying on observation alone, so I gave it my best shot and rushed to nail down what I could in 3 hours. Than my friend Carlos tells me afterwards that he's going to have the model back for another 4 hour session. I wanted to shoot myself in the foot. So in this session I worked on getting the hair in, correcting the drawing and smoothing some of the transitions. The model seemed better rested but she still could not hold the pose. I guess if I ever decide to paint someones portrait on the subway I'm going to be well prepared.

"Dog,Turban, and Rose"

"Dog, Turban, and Rose" 11"x14" oil on canvas. Finished this one just in the nick of time because the angle of the sunlight was shifting significantly. The window I'm using is northeast so at certain times of the year and day it's somewhat muted and than at other times, like now, it can be quite glaring.

"Pancho"

Study (8"x10") canvas board, block-in (16"x20") pencil on strathmore, wipe-out (16"x20") oil on linen. I'm continuing to make studies that are a little bit larger. Using a digital photo, I'm able to print a nice 8"x10" that I transfer to a 9"x12" board. I feel that the larger studies are helping me to get more of a handle on what I want the final picture to look like. I'm moving away a bit from the more abstract poster studies of the Ryder school to something more in the nature of a painted sketch. I saw some of Jacob Collins studies at the Adelson gallery exhibit and they inspired me quite a bit. This painting didn't start off with a theme, it just kind of composed itself and the theme became crystal clear as I went along. Sometimes a bit of that "channeling" will happen and I just run with it.

Turbans, etc;

I've completed work on "Turbans, Mermaid, and Rose" oil on linen, 16"x20". Even with all the careful planning, drawings, posters, wipeout, ebauche, etc; the end result is always something of a surprise, in this case, pleasantly. I decided to do a colored ebauche for "Turban, Dog, and Rose" oil on linen, 11"x14", since I was happy with my last experiment. This painting is strictly daylit and a bit of a challenge to see my palette and colors with the clarity that I'm used to, but i think in the end there will be a payoff. I have one last session with Caesar, 16"x20", so I'm hoping I can finish the legs. If I had hired this model myseld I would completely repaint the picture and consider the first pass a finished ebauche. That's because I'm having a hard time with this linen board and I'm not getting as much paint on in the finishing layer as I prefer. Still, it's an okay sketch, and grist for the mill, as they say.

Rainy Day Painting

Since I'm currently working on a still life that requires daylight, I need something to occupy my time on rainy days so I started a study of this Bargue painting which I've always loved. The reproduction is only a couple of inches so it's been a little tough, but even at that scale Bargues brilliance shines through. As I was working on the drawing block-in I was starting to tune in to all of these internal rhythms and inner curves that crisscross throughout the painting. For a brief moment i felt a kind of mind-meld thing happening and I guess that's the great thing about art is that something can reach out across the centuries and affect someone in a very immediate way.